Jimmy Murphy Performs "Electricity"
Jimmy Murphy
Wikipedia
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Jimmy Murphy Performs His Rockabilly Song, "Electricity"
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Fight With Your Friends: The More You Agree, The More Likely You're Factually Wrong
Turkish lawmakers brawl in Ankara on August 4
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The Death of Epistemology
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Fight With Your Friends About Politics
The more you agree with people on your side of political debates, the more likely you are to be wrong about the facts.
One annoying effect of extreme political polarization is that people on different sides can't agree about facts. Americans' opinions tend to coincide with those of others on their own end of the political spectrum about things such as whether there was a cover-up about Benghazi, whether the IRS has illegally targeted right-wing groups, whether Obamacare is hurting the economy, the extent to which fracking presents an environmental threat, and about many other factual matters. Certainly, Democratic politicians, activists, and spokespersons very often agree about things like that, and so do Republicans.
But though we have come to expect this, we ought to regard it as discrediting to people on both sides, as strongly suggesting that they are not committed to saying what's true. Relentless political partisans—Reince Priebus or Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Charles Krauthammer or Michael Tomasky, Rachel Maddow or Sean Hannity, Hillary Clinton or Marco Rubio—should at this point be regarded as having next to no credibility on factual questions.
Commitments with regard to values—to justice, or equality, or liberty—define your position on the political spectrum, or even what we might call your political identity. Such things may be among your most intense beliefs, and motivate many actions. But with regard to most factual questions, such things are just irrelevant.
Philosophers traditionally draw a distinction between normative and factual claims. We might distinguish them by noting that different sorts of reasons count for or against assertions about facts and those about values. Whether it would be a good thing for it to rain on Saturday in Fresno, or whether it would help us make progress if it does, is irrelevant to the question of whether it actually will rain Saturday in Fresno: That depends on whether drops of water actually fall out of the sky.
In sincerely trying to find the truth about factual claims, it is often important to decide whom to believe. To do that, it’s important to figure out who is advocating something on the basis of evidence. The people most likely to be sensitive to evidence—and therefore most worth listening to—often disagree with the consensus of the people around them on factual matters. We ought provisionally to regard people who frequently act as dissidents, heretics, and pariahs in their own political group as being more committed to speaking the truth than people who usually or always agree with the consensus. A person who diverges from the consensus of the people with whom she agrees politically may have other problems of credibility. But she does not start off with this one.
In order to build an argument for this, let's conjure some imaginary situations. First, imagine that we are psychologists, and for whatever reason we are conducting a study of the belief systems of people with green eyes. It turns out that they all believe that cutting taxes increases revenue. We'd be stunned by the arbitrary unanimity. But now imagine further that it turns out that green-eyed folks unanimously share many other beliefs: that there is a highest prime number, for example, that there is extraterrestrial intelligent life, that it will rain next Saturday, and that there was no cover-up about Benghazi.
Something is making the green-eyed people believe these things, we must suppose, but it is not having reasons. Maybe it's genetic, or maybe having green eyes is associated with some sort of neurological glitch.
Now imagine that all the leftists in Fresno think it will rain on Saturday and all the rightists think it will not. We'd find that as arbitrary as in the case of the green-eyed people and tax cuts. Whether you are on the left or right has no connection to having reliable information on whether it will rain next Saturday in Fresno.
And whether you are on the left or on the right is no more relevant to the question of whether there was a cover-up about Benghazi than it is about whether it will rain. Really, it’s not. Actual evidence here would concern such things as who knew what when or who communicated what to whom. Whether you lean forward or back, whether you think we need more equality or more liberty, more welfare programs or freer markets: These have nothing to do with what happened after Benghazi, or what the actual effects of fracking are, or whether restrictions on gun ownership reduce violence. If people on the same side with regard to political values agree about such controversial factual questions, it is very likely that they are generating these beliefs in a rationally arbitrary way.
I'll try to make the point clear with a mathematical proof, or at any rate some back-of-the-envelope calculations.
Suppose that a good assessment of the evidence that it will rain on Saturday in Fresno makes the probability 50 percent either way. If everyone's belief were responsive to the evidence, and since right-wingers and left-wingers have roughly the same access to evidence, we'd expect a 50/50 split within each group among people forming an opinion. In such a situation, we could provisionally estimate the likelihood that their beliefs are based on evidence by the distance from this 50/50 split within each group. In a case where all the right-wingers think it will rain and all the left-wingers think it will not or vice versa, we should infer that there's at least a 0.5 probability (on a 0-to-1 scale), with regard to any person in either group, that he believes what he believes because of factors other than the evidence, or that his belief is rationally arbitrary.
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The "Radical Traditionalist Catholic" Movement
Review
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The 'Radical Traditionalist Catholic' Movement
By Heidi Beirich
Though tiny in comparison with the approximately 70 million Americans who are mainstream Catholics, "radical traditionalist Catholics" may form the single largest group of hard-core anti-Semites in America.
With more than 100,000 followers in the United States – famously including actor Mel Gibson and his father Hutton Gibson – the radical traditionalist movement embraces a host of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. It has significant financial and publishing resources, and, in a growing number of cases, is interacting with white supremacist and Holocaust denial extremist groups. Leaders of the growing, energetic movement routinely pillory the Jews as "the perpetual enemy of Christ" and worse.
Also known as "integrism" or Catholic separatism, radical traditionalism is largely unknown to mainstream Catholics. Radical traditionalists are also unrelated to the many Catholics who call themselves "traditionalist" because they prefer the ancient Latin Mass, though radical traditionalists also prefer their liturgy in Latin. The official Roman Catholic Church condemns radical traditionalists for their anti-Semitism. In turn, radical traditionalists generally reject the modern Roman Catholic Church and its universalistic theology.
The radical traditionalists' understanding of what has gone wrong with the world boils down to a few basic issues. They are incensed by the Second Vatican Council's (1962-1965) historic declaration, "Nostra Aetate," which condemned "all hatreds, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism leveled at any time or from any source against the Jews."
They believe that most of the theological developments within the church since Vatican II have been egregiously wrong, especially with regard to reconciling with Jews and the followers of other faiths. They despise the Vatican's ecumenical outreach efforts to other religions. And they lament the fall of the Latin Mass and argue that the new Mass, "Novus Ordo," does not guarantee salvation.
The radical traditionalist subculture is notable for its conspiracy mongering. The most popular conspiracy theory dwells on the perils of the much-feared "Judeo-Masonic" plot. The alleged conspiracy involves ancient, shadowy fraternities such as the Masons and the Illuminati, who are seen as puppets in a Jewish master plan to destroy the Catholic Church. The theory is laid out in great detail in John Venarri's Alta Vendita, which has been compared to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an infamous tract also alleging a global plot by the Jews. Other plots abound in radical traditionalist circles, including a "Marxist-Jewish" scheme that is ruining American schools, a "Jewish-homosexual" alliance destroying the priesthood, and a 9/11 conspiracy that maintains the 2001 terrorist attacks were actually "predicted by the Blessed Virgin Mary 84 years ago."
Some radical traditionalists, including Hutton Gibson, embrace "sedevacantism," a word derived from Latin that refers to a period when "the see [or seat] is vacant." While the term is the official Roman Catholic word for the period between a pope's death and the election of his successor, many radicals are sedevacantists in the sense that they believe that there has not been a real pope for years (typically, since 1958). Some have adopted theories about rigged papal elections and even the idea that the authentic pope is secretly being held in captivity.
If radical traditionalists belong to a particular sect – and many do not – it is typically the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX). This sprawling international group, based in Kansas City, Kan., has published reams of anti-Semitic writings. In the late 1980s, Pope John Paul II excommunicated all SSPX priests and declared the sect formally in schism. Nevertheless, it has continued to grow. The sect reportedly has 20,000 to 30,000 members in the United States.
In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI moved to regularize SSPX with the church, though his announcement was marred by revelations of Holocaust denial by SSPX Bishop Richard Williamson. SSPX ordered Williamson to stop articulating his historical views about the Holocaust and, in the months after the pope's announcement, began purging its website of anti-Semitic material.
Two deceased priests – Father Denis Fahey and Father Leonard Feeney – serve as the primary inspiration for today's radical traditionalist Catholics.
Fahey, an Irish priest who died in 1954, was a prolific author whose main topic was the inherent evil of the "Jewish Nation." Repeating classic anti-Semitic allegations, Fahey blamed nearly all iniquity on Jews. According to an article by Sandra Miesel in Crisis, a conservative Catholic magazine, Fahey "enjoyed quoting papal policy statements against Jews, coyly refused to reject the long-debunked Protocols [of the Elders of Zion], praised the anti-Semitic activities of [automaker] Henry Ford, and denied the death toll from the Holocaust." Taking on the church's main bogeyman in the early 1900s, Fahey laid atheistic communism directly at the feet of the Jews: "The real forces behind Bolshevism are Jewish forces, and Bolshevism is really an instrument in the hands of the Jews for their establishment of their future Messianic kingdom."
While spouting the same kind of anti-Jewish propaganda as the Nazis, Fahey crafted an argument that he believed should exempt him from the label of anti-Semite. Fahey claimed he didn't hate the Jews per se, but merely opposed their "naturalistic aims." Since he also argued that Jews can't help but work to further those aims – communism, the destruction of Christianity and the like – this was a distinction without a difference. Today, radical traditionalists, including the Society of St. Pius X, continue to claim they are not anti-Semitic, just against "Jewish naturalism."
Fahey was much admired by the most famous American Catholic anti-Semite of the pre-war period, Father Charles Coughlin, whose highly successful radio program was shut down before the war by CBS because of Coughlin's anti-Semitism and sympathy for the Nazis. Like Coughlin, Fahey is admired by today's neo-Nazis, some of whom have contributed a number of his quotes to "1,001 Quotes By and About Jews," a feature on the racist Stormfront website.
Along with Coughlin, Fahey is the main source for The Plot Against the Church, a 1967 book supposedly written by 12 clerics under the pen name "Maurice Pinay." Similar to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the book blames Jews, also referred to as the "synagogue of Satan," for every evil that has befallen Catholics from Roman times to the present. Citing ancient papal writings, the book suggests that Jews be expelled or enslaved, segregated and forced to wear visible marks. It's little wonder that modern neo-Nazis praise Pinay's work. But the book is also embraced by large numbers of radical traditionalist Catholics. It is sold by Omni Christian Book Club, the favorite bookseller of today's radical traditionalists.
Father Leonard Feeney is best known in Catholic circles for his especially hard-line version of the "no salvation outside the church" doctrine. He was for years a leader of Boston's St. Benedict Center, a Jesuit institution.
Feeney also preached against Jews, often on the Boston Common with his followers. Although he was finally excommunicated for disobedience in 1953, he rapidly founded his own order, Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and started a newsletter, The Point, that was suffused with anti-Semitism. Feeney's newsletter blamed Jews for controlling and biasing the press and for creating communism. One article lambasted Jews for their role in "anti-hate" initiatives. Another, published in April 1958, was entitled "Newspapers and The New York Times: Other Jews and Minister Sulzberger" and summed up the Jewish "problem" like this: "Essential to the understanding of our chaotic times is the knowledge that the Jewish race constitutes a united anti-Christian bloc within Christian society, and is working for the overthrow of that society by every means at its disposal."
Feeney reconciled with the church in 1974, four years before his death. But his anti-Semitic ideas remain popular in radical traditionalist Catholic circles and in the New Hampshire monastery founded by his followers. The monastery still endorses Feeney's anti-Semitic ideology, to the point that a New Hampshire bishop criticized it in 2004 as "blatantly anti-Semitic" and "offensive." The bishop isn't the only one who sees Feeney as anti-Semitic. One white supremacist has created an online archive of Feeney's writings (www.fatherfeeney.org) for the benefit of fellow Aryans. It is part of the so-called "World White Web."
Heidi Beirich, Ph.D., is the director of research and special projects for the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project.
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Pope Francis: Poverty, Capitalism And Living Relationship Over Theory/Dogma
“Many of you have been stripped by this savage world that does not give employment, that does not help, that does not care if there are children in the world who are dying of hunger, does not care if so many families have nothing to eat.”
Pope Francis
“Just as the commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill’ sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say ‘thou shalt not’ to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills."
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"Naive trust in those wielding economic power"
"The Golden Calf"
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_calf![]()
The intractable difficulty with "unjust economic structures" is that there is no personal responsibility in them.
Rather, "unjust economic structures" are Capitalism's trump card, keeping people in perpetual oppression by depersonalizing them by depersonalizing them automatically by systems having no personal component.
Capitalist sin is essentially depersonalized, programmatic, systematic and automatic.
As Woodrow Wilson observed: "The truth is we are all caught in an economic system which is heartless."
Capitalist Sin "just happens"... because it was designed to "just happen"... a gift of self-exculpation supplied by early generations of modern capitalists who thus absolved all subsequent generations of any moral (or political) responsibility.
Structural Sin authorizes "the Pilate in each of us" to wash our hands, to turn our back on the crucifixion of the poor, and then sleep well at the end of long feasting.
Currently, Christian Theology -- based on the medieval template of each individual's personal relationship with God -- includes no heuristic, no epistemological method for grasping the pervasive nature of overarching and subtending structural sin for which "I am not responsible."
The automatic structures of sin enable each of us to proclaim -- quite plausibly and with clear conscience -- that "it is out of my hands."
In Spanish, a common legal rendition of "corporation" is "sociedad anonima" - an "anonymous society." Since "no one" dwells within the anonymous"corporate shell," there is no one to blame, no one to hold responsible; indeed no personal conscience that might be panged into "changing."
The structures are what they are - over there, far away, beyond the reach of human responsibility.
Immutable.
Perhaps the Supreme Court's recent definition of "corporations as persons" lays the foundation for a new jurisprudence that holds formerly "impersonal" corporate structures personally responsible.
Where there are "persons," moral and legal responsibility can be assigned to those persons.
Where there is only clockwork mechanism and anonymous corporate fictions -- set in motion by systematic decisions made in the distant past -- there is no more moral responsibility than my car "experiences" when I leave it running at curbside to help my wife load groceries.
It would be such sweet irony if Citizens United blew up in Capitalism's face.
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission
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“Many of you have been stripped by this savage world that does not give employment, that does not help, that does not care if there are children in the world who are dying of hunger, does not care if so many families have nothing to eat.”
- ***To understand religion across its full spectrum of virtue and vice, it is helpful to remember that Pharisees thrive in every generation."Yeshua Excoriates Fellow Pharisees"
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Uneducated Indian Children Teach Selves High-End Computer Skills In Foreign Language
Unstoppable Learning
There are five segments in this TED Radio Hour. I strongly recommend both segments by Sugata Mitra.
1.) "How Much Can Children Teach Themselves?" http://www.npr.org/2013/06/21/179015266/how-much-can-children-teach-themselves
2.) "Can Schools Exist In The Cloud?" http://www.npr.org/2013/06/21/179828483/can-schools-exist-in-the-cloud
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Researchers release study on the arachnids that live on your face
Demodex folliculorum
Living at base of hair follicle.
Wikipedia
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"Natural History is the antidote for piety."
Gregory Bateson
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Mites living on human faces may help to answer questions about human evolution.
The human body is its own ecosystem. It is home to a wide variety of microbes, fungi, viruses and tiny animals. According to prior research, 90 percent of the cells that make up the average human belong to microbes that are not part of the human in question.
Now, a new study from researchers at North Carolina State, the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, and the California Academy of Sciences has taken a close look at two species of mites that live on the human face.
It has, previously, been difficult to determine how widespread these mites are because skin sampling will not necessarily turn up actual specimens of the mites. The new research, however, looked at DNA samples from human volunteers and found evidence of the mites on all of those sampled, regardless of their health or geographic location.
In “Ubiquity and Diversity of Human-Associated Demodex Mites,” published in PLOS ONE, the researchers examine the Demodex folliculorum and Demodex brevis. The two mite species are, interestingly, not related to one another. While it might be assumed that two similar creatures, living in the same habitat, might share a close common ancestor, these two mites appear to have entirely separate histories.
“Our analyses actually show that brevis is more closely related to dog mites than to folliculorum, the other human mite. This is interesting because it shows us that humans have acquired each of these mite species in different ways, and that there are two separate histories of how each of these mite species came to be on our face,” said Michelle Trautwein, adjunct assistant professor of entomology at NC State and Schlinger Chair of Dipterology at the California Academy of Sciences in a statement.
It does not appear that these animals, both of which have been with us for a very long time, actually cause any damage. Researchers hope, however, that they may provide information about how humans evolved and spread around the world after emerging from Africa.
“So far, our analyses look promising. When looking at the DNA from one of our mite species, D. brevis, we found that mites from China are genetically distinct from mites from the Americas. East Asians and European populations diverged over 40,000 years ago and so far it looks like their mites did as well,” said Trautwein.
As more DNA samples, from other parts of the world, are studied they should provide additional details about human populations, when they separated from one another and what other groups they may be related to.
For additional information on creatures that live in the zoo that is the human body, see the National Institutes of Health’s Human Microbiome Project.
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Mayan "End Time" Prophecies: How Gringos - And The Rest Of The World - Think
The Mayan vision of time is based on cycles which, at predictable intervals, come to an end.
Enthralled by terrestrial interpretations of "Armageddon" -- a concept arising from the radical dualism of Manichean myth -- dimwit gringos see all "End Time" prophecies as:
THE BLACK WALL BEYOND WHICH THERE IS NOTHING
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How The Three "Wheels" Of The Mayan Calendar Work Together
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Manichaeism
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Labor Day: Let Us Remember Those Who Died For The 8 Hour Work Day
The Haymarket Riot And Massacre
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Labor Day: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
The Haymarket Riot And Massacre: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_affair
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The Weekend
Brought to you by Henry Ford, Organized Labor and Franklin Roosevelt's "New Deal."
Teddy Roosevelt: "Malefactors of great wealth are curses to the country."
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"The Roosevelts: An Intimate Portrait"
by Ken Burns
Debuts this month on PBS.
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"Too much cannot be said against the men of wealth who sacrifice everything to getting wealth. There is not in the world a more ignoble character than the mere money-getting American, insensible to every duty, regardless of every principle, bent only on amassing a fortune, and putting his fortune only to the basest uses —whether these uses be to speculate in stocks and wreck railroads himself, or to allow his son to lead a life of foolish and expensive idleness and gross debauchery, or to purchase some scoundrel of high social position, foreign or native, for his daughter. Such a man is only the more dangerous if he occasionally does some deed like founding a college or endowing a church, which makes those good people who are also foolish forget his real iniquity. These men are equally careless of the working men, whom they oppress, and of the State, whose existence they imperil. There are not very many of them, but there is a very great number of men who approach more or less closely to the type, and, just in so far as they do so approach, they are curses to the country."
(Forum, February 1895.) Mem.Ed. XV, 10; Nat. Ed. XIII, 9.
Republican President Teddy Roosevelt
Spearhead Of Progressive Politics
Wikiquote
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"Plutocracy Triumphant"
A Compendium of Cartoons
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/05/plutocracy-triumphant.html***
"Labor Day Remembrance: Catholic Teaching On The Right Of Every Worker To Organize"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/08/labor-day-remembrance-catholic-teaching.html↧
Climate Change: Is Your Opinion Informed By Science? Christian Science Monitor Quiz
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Republican States Poised To Expand Medicaid After Long, Deadly Resistance
"GOP's Anti-Medicaid Expansion Body Count, By State"
"Why Are Murderous GOP Governors Protected By The Press?"
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"Republicans Finally Admit Why They Hate Obamacare"
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"Obamacare: Where's The Train Wreck?"
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"Bill Maher: The Zombie Life Cycle Of Republican Lies. They Never - Ever - Die"
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Thursday's announcement that Pennsylvania will expand its Medicaid program brings the country one state closer to the original expansion outlined under Obamacare. But because of the Supreme Court's 2012 decision making the expansion a voluntary program, there are still 23 states that haven't expanded public health insurance to all of their low-income residents.
The expansion in Pennsylvania will add about 500,000 low-income to adults to the Medicaid rolls. According to numbers from the Kaiser Family Foundation, about 281,000 of those people were falling into what's known as the "coverage gap"— people who don't qualify for Medicaid but also don't get subsidies for purchasing insurance on their own, either. About 4.5 million people across the country fall into this coverage gap, according to Kaiser.
State Medicaid programs generally cover some adult populations, like parents and disabled individuals, at varying income levels, but the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion expands eligibility to all low-income adults earning up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $15,500. Eligibility levels won't change in the states that don't expand, but adults earning above the federal poverty line, or about $11,500, can receive federal subsidies in those states to purchase private insurance on the health insurance exchanges — so they still have a coverage option. This graphic from Kaiser helps illustrate the coverage gap in practice:
According to Kaiser's figures, Pennsylvania had one of the largest coverage gaps of any state that hadn't yet expanded Medicaid. It trailed only Texas (1.05 million), Florida (763,890), Georgia (409,350), and North Carolina (318,710). Texas Gov. Rick Perry isn't going to expand, and his likely successor also strongly opposes the expansion. Competitive governor races in Florida and Georgia this year could improve the prospects for expansion if Democratic candidates win. North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory hasn't shown any signs that he's reconsidering his opposition to the expansion, as the state is involved in a pretty major overhaul of its existing Medicaid program.
There are other states, though, that appear to be on the cusp of following in Pennsylvania's footsteps.
The most likely candidate is Indiana, which has asked the federal government to approve an expansion plan levering an existing a state program using a health savings account model. If approved, that could eliminate a coverage gap of about 181,930 people, according to the Kaiser figures.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam — who's been exploring Medicaid options for more than a year — told local reporters on Thursday that he could submit an expansion plan this fall. That could close a coverage gap affecting 161,650 people, but the Republican-controlled state legislature could oppose the effort.
Virginia Gov. Terry McAulifffe (D) also has a legislative headache on his hands. After the legislature rejected expansion plans this summer, McAuliffe offered vague overtures about exploring options to act unilaterally to expand coverage. Republican lawmakers have called for aspecial session in September to consider the expansion, which would close a coverage gap affecting 190,840 people.
Utah Gov. Gary Herbert (R) is trying to get an expansion deal done with the feds by the end of September, which would make 57,850 residents eligible for coverage. There are reportedly some sticking points in the negotiations with the Obama administration — particularly Herbert's proposal to attach work requirements to the expansion — but the state's Republican-controlled legislature could be Herbert's biggest obstacle.
And in Wyoming, Gov. Matt Mead (R) last week said he expects to offer potential Medicaid expansion plans to the legislature when it convenes in January. That would mean another 17,390 people no longer in the coverage gap.
Jason Millman covers all things health policy, with a focus on Obamacare implementation. He previously covered health policy for Politico.
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The Hard Central Fact Of Contemporary Conservatism
The hard, central "fact" of contemporary "conservatism" is its insistence on a socio-economic threshold above which people deserve government assistance, and below which people deserve to die.
The sooner the better.
Unless conservatives are showing n'er-do-wells The Door of Doom, they just don't "feel right."
To allay this chthonic anxiety, they resort to Human Sacrifice, hoping that spilled blood will placate "the angry gods," including the one they've made of themselves. http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/09/harvard-study-45000-americans-die.html
Having poked their eyes out, they fail to see that self-generated wrath creates "the gods" who hold them thrall.
Almost "to a man," contemporary "conservatives" have apotheosized themselves and now -- sitting on God's usurped throne -- are rabid to pass Final Judgment.
Self-proclaimed Christians, eager to thrust "the undeserving" through The Gates of Hell, are the very people most likely to cross its threshold.
Remarkably, none of them are tempted to believe this.
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My 25 Favorite Books
2.) "The Four Canonical Gospels," Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. Although it is important to read the canonical Gospels in different translations, my eyes have been opened by the remarkable 1990s' translation -- "The Message: The Bible In Contemporary Language" -- by professor Eugene H. Peterson. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Message_(Bible)
3.) "Tao Te Ching," by Lao Tzu - The Lionel Giles Translation. http://sacred-texts.com/tao/salt/index.htm
4.) "Tools for Conviviality," Ivan Illich
5.) "Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business," Neil Postman
6.) "The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture," Wendell Berry
7.) "A Christmas Carol," by Charles Dickins. (Disney's animated version of "A Christmas Carol" with Jim Carrey "doing all the voices" is a tour de force - the one version I recommend above all others. http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2011/12/daily-dose-112911-christmas-carol.html)
8.) "A Wizard of Earthsea" (The Earthsea Cycle), Ursula LeGuin
9.) "Things Fall Apart," Chinua Achebe
10.) "The Hobbit; or, There and Back Again," J.R.R. Tolkien
11.) "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," Robert Louis Stevenson
12.) "No One Writes to the Colonel: and Other Stories," Gabriel (José de la Concordia) García Márquez
13.) "To Kill a Mockingbird," Harper Lee
14.) "The Laughing Man" (and other stories) - Nine Stories - by J.D. Salinger
15.) "Notes from Underground," Fyodor Dostoyevsky
16.) "The Silver Chair" (The Chronicles of Narnia #4), C.S. Lewis
17.) "The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America," Timothy Egan
18.) "The Great Divorce," C.S. Lewis
19.) "Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales," a very irregular collection but with a number of masterpieces including "The Fisherman's Wife," a tale that begs "Disney/Pixar" rendering.
20.) "The Winter of Our Discontent," John Steinbeck (I will take this opportunity to spotlight Steinbeck's own translation of Mallory's "L'Morte d'Arthur" entitled "The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights")
21.) "Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology," Neil Postman
22.) "One Hundred Years of Solitude," Gabriel (José de la Concordia) García Márquez (N.B. To avoid possible frustration while reading "One Hundred Years Of Solitud," make continual reference to the genealogy at the beginning of the book. Otherwise, the presence of characters across several generations, all with the name "Aureliano Buendia" will cause considerable confusion.)
23.) "Macario," B. Traven "B. Traven was the pen name of a presumably German novelist, whose real name, nationality, date and place of birth and details of biography are all subject to dispute. One of the few certainties about Traven's life is that he lived for years in Mexico, where the majority of his fiction is also set—including The Treasure of the Sierra Madre(1927), which was adapted for the Academy Award winning film of the same name in 1948."
24.) "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote
25.) "The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America" (Caveat emptor. I am reluctant to include this book. It is a brilliant but unrelenting study of evil and will leave "a ring around your soul."
25.) "The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America" (Caveat emptor. I am reluctant to include this book. It is a brilliant but unrelenting study of evil and will leave "a ring around your soul."
***
Newsweek's "Top 100 Books: The Meta-List"
http://www.librarything.com/bookaward/Newsweek's+Top+100+Books%3A+The+Meta-List
Wikipedia's "One Hundred Best Books Of All Time"
Wikipedia's "One Hundred Best Books Of All Time"
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Boston's New "Wicked Free Wi-Fi Network"
Grove Hall was selected as the launch site because of its large number of low-income families who may not be able to afford the high cost of speedy broadband service.
Boston spreads free Wi-Fi hotspots
Grove Hall launch is start of a 20-district network
Boston has switched on a free public Wi-Fi network for about 30,000 residents living in the Grove Hall neighborhood as the first step to blanketing much of the city with wireless Internet service.
Dubbed Wicked Free Wi-Fi, the network of outdoor Wi-Fi hotspots will provide Internet coverage over an area of about 1.5 square miles, making it easier for users with smartphones and tablets to access the Internet on the go.
The signal will be strong enough for many households within the coverage area to surf the Web, check e-mail, and use social media. Connection speeds will be just strong enough to live stream a movie or video of medium quality.
Related
And over the next two years, the Walsh administration plans to extend the Wi-Fi network to all 20 commercial districts that are part of the city’s Main Streets neighborhoods program. Those areas are eligible for federal grant money to fund community development projects.
Grove Hall was selected as the launch site because of its large number of low-income families who may not be able to afford the high cost of speedy broadband service.
“We are launching this in a neighborhood where there’s not a lot of access to Wi-Fi,” said Mayor Martin J. Walsh, who is scheduled to announce the citywide network at an event Wednesday in Grove Hall. “There are certain parts of the city where service just goes down.”
Boston had Wi-Fi hotspots scattered around the city before this rollout — about 70 access points in a few tourist districts or at municipal properties. However, those hotspots reach just a short distance, and do not have the kind of wide-area blanket coverage as the Grove Hall network should provide.
The city stresses that the new Wi-Fi network isn’t designed to be used inside homes as a replacement for wired services that residents can buy from commercial providers. Rather it will work best for mobile users, and is largely intended to be accessed outdoors or in the restaurants and cafes around the neighborhood. It will cover the area centered around Grove Hall and reach as far as Columbus Road to the west, and Columbia Road to the east, and north up Blue Hill Avenue to the edge of Dudley Square.
The Wi-Fi access points will connect users to the Web via the city’s own high-speed fiber-optic network.
“It’s not our goal to blanket the city with indoor coverage,” said Justin Holmes, Boston’s interim chief information officer.
However, the Wi-Fi expansion puts Boston on pace with many other municipalities around the country, such as New York and San Francisco, that are building wireless networks as a relatively inexpensive way to extend the reach of the Internet to underserved areas. New York City is building the largest public wireless network for a 95-block area in Harlem to connect some 93,000 residents. San Francisco provides free Wi-Fi to its public housing developments.
Those municipal Wi-Fi networks can’t compete with high-speed Internet connections that many commercial providers, such as Comcast Corp. and RCN Corp., offer — at subscriptions that can top $100 a month, when bundled with other services.
The stiff price for high-speed Internet has prompted tech giant Google Inc. to begin installing an all fiber-optic network, beginning first in Kansas City, Kan., that promises Internet service 100 times faster than average broadband, starting at $70 a month.
The Google Fiber project has prompted many cities to explore new ways of expanding Internet availability, including building faster networks on their own, said Esme Vos, founder of Muniwireless.com, a resource for public wireless networks.
“People are saying, ‘Why can’t we have that here?’ ” said Vos.
It’s not just the convenience of streaming movies or chatting on Facebook, Vos said; Internet access has become indispensable for students to do their homework, and job seekers to find work.
“You can’t even file job applications today if you aren’t online,” Vos said. “It’s part of the literacy that we expect people to have.”
Chattanooga, Tenn., for example, recently built its own fiber networks that will bring ultrafast Web service to residents’ homes.
Such systems, though, are extraordinarily expensive, beyond the means of most cities’ finances; Chattanooga, for example, used stimulus funds from the federal government to help pay for the $330 million fiber network, and even so, will charge residents at least $58 a month.
Former mayor Thomas M. Menino tried but failed to persuade Google to select Boston as one of its fiber communities. Menino also had a long-running dispute with Verizon over the telecom giant’s refusal to offer its high speed fiber-optic FiOS network to Boston residents.
So as elsewhere, a Wi-Fi network was the most convenient and cost-effective option for Boston.
The Grove Hall project was born during Menino’s administration, which was awarded a $20.5 million federal grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2011 that set aside money for redevelopment projects in Dorchester. About $300,000 was used for the Grove Hall build-out.
Barbara Fields, HUD’s New England regional director, said improved Internet access has become a crucial component for bettering the lives of the city’s low-income residents.
“This idea to take a section of the city and provide Internet is an investment that will reap a lot of benefits,” said Fields. “This puts Grove Hall right in the center of things.”
Walsh hopes the network helps boost economic development around Grove Hall, and eventually in the city’s other Main Streets districts, by dangling free Wi-Fi to attract new businesses to these underserved parts of Boston.
“This is important for our economy,” said Walsh. “It spurs economic development.”
Walsh has made improving Internet access a key part of his mayoral agenda and has said he plans on improving service to schools and businesses, as well. He said the Grove Hall project was a first step in that direction, but has not elaborated on other measures.
Because it’s public Wi-Fi, the Grove Hall network has some of the same security risks associated with similar Internet connections available in coffee shops or libraries. In general, security experts warn against using these networks to send personal details such as credit card information. So, users shopping online may want to use a more secure Web connection.
The network will include about 100 wireless units that will be placed in locations around Roxbury and Dorchester. Each unit has a signal of about 300 feet. Even though the network is just starting to be publicized, nearly 10,000 people a day have found their way onto the network since it was turned on with little fanfare in March.
Boston will install signs around the city in the coming weeks to advertise the Wi-Fi network. And this being a public network, Wicked Free Wi-Fi will have limits. Users won’t be able to access pornography, malicious content, gambling websites, or sites that allow people to improperly download copyrighted material such as movies.
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What Is "Solarize Hillsborough?" - A Template For Any Community
What is Solarize Hillsborough?
Solarize Hillsborough is a grassroots initiative that makes solar simple and affordable for the people of Hillsborough.
- We partner with local solar businesses for group discountsand affordable financing. We pass those savings on to you and your community.
- And, we help you optimize your tax incentives and maximize your electricity bill savings.
- We've taken the guess work out of finding a solar installer. Our installer partners, Southern Energy Management and Yes! Solar Solutions, were selected after rigorous review by solar experts and local community leaders.
- Best of all, we connect you with neighborhood volunteers andsolar experts to guide youeach step of the way.
How does it work?
Step 1: Free home solar assessment
- When you sign up, we'll schedule you for a free home solar assessment. There is no commitment here, just a straightforward assessment of your solar options.
- Your assessment will be conducted by our Solarize Hillsborough installers -- eitherSouthern Energy Managementor Yes! Solar Solutions.
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These companies have beenvetted by a rigorous proposal process and reviewed by local experts. - What if your assessment suggests solar isn't suitable for your home? What if you are a renter? You can still put your tax credits to work by joining acommunity solar project to put panels on a public site.
Step 2: Maximize your savings
- Your solar assessment will provide options custom fit to your home site, electricity demands, and financing needs. We've streamlined the process so the installer will set up your system, obtain the necessary permits, and coordinate the interconnection with your electric utility.
- With the Solarize Hillsborough negotiated price, you can be confident that you are getting a great value. Here is how the costs break down for a typical 4 kW installation on a Hillsborough home:
Average retail price $ 19,000 Solarize Hillsborough $ 16,080 35% NC tax credit $ 5,628 Est. Federal tax credit $ 3,417 Net cost $ 7,035 - Solarize Hillsborough has tiered pricing. When more people in Orange County go solar, everyone's cost goes down even more. Here are the discounts for the 4 kW example.
When Solarize installations exceed... The discount for a typical 4 kW home installation is... 15 kW (Tier 2) $ 280 50 kW (Tier 3) $ 800 200 kW (Tier 4) $ 1,080 - Your discount will depend on the size of your system. Details here.
- The first step is to get 15 kW contracted to activate Tier 2:
- 0 kW CONTRACTED15 kW NEEDED TO REACH TIER 2
- And you don't have to wait for the lowest price. You will not be billed for the final 10% of the cost until the lowest price is set at the end of the program.
- Finally, make sure you take advantage of valuable state and federal tax credits that could save up to 65%. We'll send you a reminder during tax season.
- Have any questions? Our local experts and neighborhood volunteers are here to help. Just send me an email (rob.pinder@solarizenc.org) or post to our forum.
Step 3: Enjoy the benefits of solar
- Spend less money on electricity. Spend more money on the things you love.
- It's that simple.
- But there's more than just the dollars and cents. Fossil fuels pollute our air, poison our drinking water, and give rise to climate change. When your home goes solar, your energy is local, independent, and safe for us and future generations.
Step 4: Spread the word
- Your solar home will be great. But to get to a clean, independent energy future, we need everyone involved.
- When you spread the word, your friends and neighbors will thank you. And the costs will go down for everyone.
- There are a lot of ways to help out. You could share this page with your neighborhood's email list, like our page on facebook, or volunteer to help out with Solarize Hillsborough.
Sign up today!
- When you join during our early sign up period, one of our installer partners will be in contact with you to schedule your free home solar assessment, and you are eligible to participate in our tiered pricing group discounts.
Join Solarize Hillsborough
Comments or Questions? Contact Us: info@solarizenc.org
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Jon Stewart: Ferguson And Pervasive Racism In The United States
***
"Bad Black People." Why Bill O'Reilly Is Wrong Even When He's Right
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/08/bad-black-people-why-bill-oreilly-is.html
"Bad Black People." Why Bill O'Reilly Is Wrong Even When He's Right
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/08/bad-black-people-why-bill-oreilly-is.html
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CENTCOM Commander, 4 Star Gen. Zinni: The Total Catrastrophe Of Bush's Iraq War
Ret. Gen. Anthony Zinni discusses his book 'The Battle for Peace' at Vroman's Bookstore on in Pasadena, California. April 20, 2006
***
"For misleading the American people, and launching the most foolish war since Emperor Augustus in 9 B.C sent his legions into Germany and lost them, Bush deserves to be impeached and, once he has been removed from office, put on trial along with the rest of the president’s men. If convicted, they’ll have plenty of time to mull over their sins."
"Costly Withdrawal Is The Price To Be Paid For A Foolish War"
Israeli War Historian, Martin van Creveld
***
Start listening at the 38:11 minute mark for a startlingly clear explanation of the social, economic and political catastrophe unleashed by Bush and Cheney's Iraq War.
Former CENTCOM Commander General Tony Zinni
Leaders gathering this week at the NATO summit face a world marked by instability. Evidence mounts that Russian troops and weaponry are being used in Ukraine despite denials by the Kremlin. President Obama faces criticism at home and abroad that he has not acted forcefully enough against the terror group ISIS. And Israel is claiming more land in the Palestinian West Bank. Former CENTCOM commander General Tony Zinni says the U.S. needs to step up its leadership in these crises. At the same time, he says we need a more clear-eyed process of committing our troops to guarantee success. He joins Diane to talk about U.S. foreign policy, presidential leadership, and why we often fail to achieve the military outcomes promised by Washington.
Guests
Gen. Anthony Zinni
former Commander in Chief of CENTCOM (1997-2000) and special envoy to the Middle East. His latest book is titled, "Before The First Shots Are Fired."
Related Items
Read A Featured Excerpt
Excerpted from "Before the First Shots Are Fired: How America Can Win Or Lose Off The Battlefield" by Tony Zinni and Tony Koltz. © 2014, Palgrave Macmillan.
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Weird Enuf Fer Ya? Notes From Barbaria #146
Paraphrased excerpt from the Russell Brand video below: 'It's the presumptuous, aggressive, overbearing entitlement of neo-conservative American thinking that creates the kind of disharmony and conflict (we see in the Middle East).'
Russell Brand hilariously destroys Fox News in ongoing feud (VIDEO)
Russell Brand hilariously destroys Fox News in ongoing feud (VIDEO)
***
- White man jaywalks with a gun… guess what happens?
- The very rich are angry at the extremely rich
- It was just a matter of time: Militia member interferes with actual border patrol
- Mitch McConnell campaign manager resigns as bribery scandal grows
- Nutpick-a-palooze: Michael Brown's racist funeral
- Comparing how the New York Times described Mike Brown & Ted Bundy
- Iceland volcano update: New eruption with 60 meter lava fountains: Photos, maps and videos
- Kochs to Republicans: All your voters belong to us
- Greg Abbott chickens out of debating Wendy Davis, lies about it
- Sam Brownback names Koch employee to Kansas Supreme Court
- The best and worst campaign ads of 2014 (so far)
Minnesota man will file civil rights suit against cops who Tased him for not identifying himself
Masked California cop accused of beating woman with a baseball bat
FL mayor badgers atheist at public meeting for not standing for prayer or Pledge of Allegiance
Cop who threatened to ‘f*cking kill’ reporter during Ferguson protests officially resigns
Armed Open Carry activists crash Ohio anti-gun violence rally and harass protesters
7-year-old California boy shooting ‘youth rifle’ shot in chest at family’s homemade range
Texas cops ‘swarm’ school, police call for ‘prayer’ over miscarriage in bathroom
District suspends ‘dangerous’ teacher for writing scifi novel about school shooting in 2902
Oklahoma cop accused of raping black women finds supporters on social media
Ancient Stonehenge mystery solved thanks to particularly dry summer: archaeologists
Statutory rape victim owes more than $15,000 in child support for daughter he fathered at 14
Fox News guest: Feminists aren’t being ‘what God designed them to be’
CeeLo Green defends alleged drink-spiking: It’s only ‘really’ rape when she’s conscious
Mississippi gay man says Baptist teacher raped him for three years so he’d hate men
‘I’m back, Obama’: Islamic State jihadists claim beheading of second US journalist
British ‘jihadist’ mom and former rock band member threatens to behead Christians: reports
PetSmart adoption day goes horribly wrong — man may face charges for stabbing pit bull
Frankfurt court bans Uber taxi services across Germany
Family angry with Illinois police for going silent over gay man’s death during traffic stop
Louie Gohmert: Ban non-English speakers from schools because they ‘bring education down’
Fox News guest: Feminists aren’t being ‘what God designed them to be’
CeeLo Green defends alleged drink-spiking: It’s only ‘really’ rape when she’s conscious
Mississippi gay man says Baptist teacher raped him for three years so he’d hate men
‘I’m back, Obama’: Islamic State jihadists claim beheading of second US journalist
British ‘jihadist’ mom and former rock band member threatens to behead Christians: reports
PetSmart adoption day goes horribly wrong — man may face charges for stabbing pit bull
Frankfurt court bans Uber taxi services across Germany
Family angry with Illinois police for going silent over gay man’s death during traffic stop
Louie Gohmert: Ban non-English speakers from schools because they ‘bring education down’
- Man fires 9mm at couple who interrupted public fellatio because Second Amendment remedy!
- Why 2014 is not 2010, in one very clear chart
- Cartoon: Reality collapse
- Quick signature needed: Overrule Citizens United
- National Review lists the 20 movies that 'effectively destroyed art'
- How bad was Michael Brown's school?
- Media in a tizzy over XXX celebrity picture leak, fail to correlate to larger NSA/privacy debate
- Adding up the billions wasted by the House Republicans
- Assault rifle sales sluggish because cruel dictator Obama still hasn't banned them
- Cartoon: God-Man: Enter the Purse Thief!
- Bárðarbunga pictures, charts, and video: And so begins the gas plume
- Genetic maps reveal Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone is linked to one funeral and virus is mutating
- Scottish Independence can actually happen.
- 'Hands up!'
Rafael Cruz: The ‘average Black’ doesn’t understand why the minimum wage is bad
Police: 9-year-old girl involved in fatal Uzi shooting told mother weapon was ‘too much’ for her
College student carries mattress around campus to protest lack of sanctions against rapist
Prostate foundation rejects cash from Reddit users feeling guilty over Jennifer Lawrence pics
Professor: Being gay is like smoking, so charge LGBT people more for life insurance
PetSmart adoption day goes horribly wrong — man may face charges for stabbing pit bull
CeeLo Green defends alleged drink-spiking: It’s only ‘really’ rape when she’s conscious
Police: 9-year-old girl involved in fatal Uzi shooting told mother weapon was ‘too much’ for her
College student carries mattress around campus to protest lack of sanctions against rapist
Prostate foundation rejects cash from Reddit users feeling guilty over Jennifer Lawrence pics
Professor: Being gay is like smoking, so charge LGBT people more for life insurance
PetSmart adoption day goes horribly wrong — man may face charges for stabbing pit bull
CeeLo Green defends alleged drink-spiking: It’s only ‘really’ rape when she’s conscious
↧
"Non-Racist" Gringos Cheer Black Man Who Would "Ventilate Black Asses With M16s"
Dear John,
Thanks for sending the purported black man's "nigger" rant. http://67.227.255.239/forum/showthread.php?t=887222
It does no good -- in fact, it does harm -- to suggest the propriety, under any condition, of calling black people "niggers."
My father spoke of a chauffeured Protestant woman who used to visit "Mohican Market" where Dad worked as a teen. Immediately she entered the store, she engaged the owner in foul rants about "damned papists!"
Across every ideological boundary, the self-righteous share one conviction, that they -- and only they -- are absolutely right; so right that they are entitled to slaughter and are made giddy by the eternal torment of the dead.
Mercy, compassion, love and forgiveness are forever trumped by vengeance, vindictiveness, retaliation and retribution.
Across every ideological boundary, the self-righteous share one conviction, that they -- and only they -- are absolutely right; so right that they are entitled to slaughter and are made giddy by the eternal torment of the dead.
Mercy, compassion, love and forgiveness are forever trumped by vengeance, vindictiveness, retaliation and retribution.
Lest we forget...
Just a few centuries ago, Protestants and Catholics were ripping out one another's throats in The Thirty Years War -- and, as recently as 1826, The Inquisition executed a Spanish school teacher.
"The Thirty Years War": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_Years'_War
"The Inquisition": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inquisition
Here's how self-righteous vilification of "others" leads first to the annihilation of "infidels," and then, to spiritual self-destruction.
"I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off. So I ran over and said "Stop! Don't do it!""Why shouldn't I?" he said. "Well, there's so much to live for!""Like what?""Well... are you religious?" He said yes. I said, "Me too! Are you Christian or Buddhist?""Christian.""Me too! Are you Catholic or Protestant ? "Protestant.""Me too! Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?""Baptist""Wow! Me too! Are you Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of the Lord?""Baptist Church of God!""Me too! Are you original Baptist Church of God, or are you reformed Baptist Church of God?""Reformed Baptist Church of God!""Me too! Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915?" He said, "Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915!" I said, "Die, heretic scum", and pushed him off."
Emo Philips
"The Essence Of Religious Fanaticism: Christian And Islamic"
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Angry white people -- and their armed-to-the-teeth militia wing -- are fully prepared to instigate the equivalent of another Civil War, one from which the United States will not emerge intact.
***
"Republicans For Revolution," A Study In Anarchic Apocalypticism
***
Before we go any farther down the road of race-baiting, we would wisely remind ourselves that the deliberate inflammation of anger (one of The Seven Deadly Sins) can, in fact, un-do this country.
Lindsay Graham Is 3rd Term Republican Senator from South Carolina.
Notice that neither conservatives nor liberals point to The Democratic Party and caution against "angry black guys."
The problem -- and it is an existential problem -- is "angry white guys."
***
Put the shoe on the other foot Giovanni.
Do you really want lily white America confusing Italian-Americans with mafiosi wops, the same "mafiosi wops" whom Pope Francis "took to the mat" just weeks ago - and not for the first time. http://www.kansascity.com/living/religion/article801359.html
Once we normalize any reference to niggers (or dago/wops), every American bigot will assume such "normalization" authorizes her to call every black person a "nigger" - and every Italian a mafioso wop.
Why? Because most people -- particularly the evangelical dimwits among us -- define themselves as "normal" and thus fully able to make "true distinctions."
Consider the case of this middle class white woman...
You Will Remember This White Woman's "F_______ Nigger" Rant For The Rest Of Your Life
In the end, it does not matter to me if a black man actually wrote your forwarded "deathbed rant," although - truth be told - the document has every hallmark of honky skullduggery, particularly its "untraceable anonymity."
I also have a "nose," and your "death bed missive" smells more like a white ideologue's wet dream than a black man "setting the record straight."
But whether the screed's author is black or white, you can trust legions of American conservatives to shit in the mouth of God-Truth whenever opportunity presents.
"People Who Watch Only Fox News Know Less Than People Who Watch No News At All"
(The Righteous might wisely recall that one of The Ten Commandments reads: "Thou shalt not bear false witness.")
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Angry white people bleed at the eyes to beat the pulp out of "niggers" and "ragheads" - as if the holocaustal carnage Uncle Sam rained down on Vietnam and Iraq weren't enough.
"Terrorism and The Other Religions"
by University of Michigan History Professor, Juan Cole
(Yes, it fact checks.)Blood lust is never satisfied.
Like the rest of the world's "un-dead," angry white Americans' hunger for carnage is insatiable.
Invade Iraq again!
Invade Syria!
Send troops to Ukraine!
And once we've had our belligerent orgasm, then what?
Another Syria?
Another Iraq?
Another Gaza?
Another Libya?
Another Afghanistan?
Each of them worse than their predecessor?
Each of them worse than their predecessor?
When General Petraeus took the reins in Iraq, he asked but one question: "How does this end?"
Most Americans -- certainly most white Americans -- are not only content, but eager, to initiate belligerence not once asking: "How does this end?"
The routine assumption of most Americans -- against all evidence -- is that if we just ejaculate enough firepower, we WIN!
The bewildering backdrop to all this is that Saved! "Christians" have a hard-on for nuclear holocaust as the only way to trigger The Great Armegeddon Duke-Out when, blessedly, The Bible Belt experiences collective Rapture.
As for the moribund "black" man's irate insistence that people stop "covering up" Michael Brown's "shoplifting" and start calling it "ROBBERY"... It has never occurred to me to refrain from calling it "robbery" although "all caps" seems a bit excessive.
Personally I think the term "shoplifting" is more accurate, I have nothing against the word "ROBBERY."
That said, the real purpose of spotlighting Michael Brown's "ROBBERY" is to distract us from the entirely different set of circumstances on the street where Michael was killed by a cop who put six bullets in his unarmed teenage body; the second last bullet into his head, and only then the lethal sixth bullet.
"I Understand The First Bullet. And The Second Bullet. And The Third Bullet. And The Fourth Bullet. And The Fifth Bullet..."
Concerning the supposed "black" veteran's eagerness to have the Army National Guard "ventilate your black asses with M-16s with military precision," I see the unhinged rambling of a murderous thug.
When the presumed "black author" of "Ventilate Your Black Asses With M-16s" informs his "fellow blacks" that "you are not discriminated against," tell me this John: "Would you feel discriminated against if someone suggested "ventilating your dago-wop ass with an M-16.""
And how would you feel when legions of angry white guys then clamor to kill "your dago-wop ass" and the rest of conservative America applauds their rhetoric?
If you still don't think racism thrives in The United States of Barbaria, check out Colin Powell's Chief of Staff.
Republican Party Is "Full Of Racists," Colin Powell's Chief Of Staff
Notably, the same "dying black man" who yearns to "ventilate black asses with M-16s" praises Colin Powell as an exemplary Afro-American.
Do you seriously think Powell's Caucasian Chief of Staff does not see what's going on?
Or that he's lying?
Again, I refer you to:
"Bad Black People."
Why Bill O'Reilly Is Wrong Even When He's Right
"Fox Chases Tail"
Although O’Reilly rails against sexual promiscuity in black communities,
his own sex life reads like a stereotyped "welfare queen's."
http://nymag.com/news/
***
"Jon Stewart Blasts Fox News: "No F*cking Idea" How To Discuss Ferguson"
***
http://nymag.com/news/
***
"Jon Stewart Blasts Fox News:
"No F*cking Idea" How To Discuss Ferguson"
***
Alan: Most Americans have living relatives who were alive when these good Christians cooked this man.
Several years ago, I attended a talk by UNC-Chapel Hill Public Health Professor John Hatch who mentioned that all four grandparents were born into slavery. In one of his ancestral families the children were auctioned off in a single day. Knowing that the new owners would remove them to distant plantations - with no hope of family reunion - a bereaved daughter committed suicide within hours of her sale.
To think that this heritage - still burningly alive in human memory - can be transcended in a few generations is more Pharisaic than the good church-goers whom Yeshua railed against.
"Yeshua Excoriates Fellow Pharisees"
***
More photos of good Christians barbecuing human beings
can be viewed at the bottom of this post.
can be viewed at the bottom of this post.
***
Dear John,
Thanks for sending Bill O'Reilly's rant against black people. It is the sort of self-righteous screed I have come to expect of many "good Catholics." An essentially narrow-minded person, O'Reilly epitomizes the epistemological truth that "Every text without a context is a pretext." http://www.
There is no question that the decline of the black family has created a toxic swamp that breeds violent men.
"The Negro Family: The Case For National Action"
The Moynihan Report, 1965
Some statistics:
"One in every three black males born today can expect to go to prison at some point in his life, compared with one in every six Latino males, and one in every 17 white males..." http://www.
"One in every three black males born today can expect to go to prison at some point in his life, compared with one in every six Latino males, and one in every 17 white males..." http://www.
That said, a large body of evidence demonstrates that black men are three to five times more likely to spend time in jail than white counterparts guilty of the same crime - assuming, of course, that unarmed black men are not first shot down on the streets.
Republican Party Is "Full Of Racists," Colin Powell's Chief Of Staff
"The System Makes It 350% More Likely That People Of Color Do Time For Same Crime"
American Police Shoot An Unarmed Black Man Every 72 Hours
(Taking police and vigilante shootings together, we find that an unarmed black man gets shot every 29 hours.)
(Taking police and vigilante shootings together, we find that an unarmed black man gets shot every 29 hours.)
It is also useful to keep in mind that "jail time" does not necessarily imply "real" criminality.
"Jail" is also "home" to repeat offenders like our peace-and-justice friend Patrick O'Neill, as well as young black males four times more likely than whites to be jailed for marijuana infractions although the percentage of users is the same for blacks and whites.
Plus, there are a host of other trivial "crimes" -- none of which whites can fathom -- like "walking (or driving) while black."
"Diane Rehm: Georgetown Law Professor's Revealing Account Of Police Harassment"
"Minnesota Man Tased For Refusing To Identify Himself"
The Adverse Effect Of A Single Arrest On Job Prospects Often Lasts A Lifetime
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/08/fergusons-failure-to-announce-thorough.html
"How Criminal Records Make It Impossible To Get One's Life Back"
"How Criminal Records Make It Impossible To Get One's Life Back"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/08/tear-gas-surrounds-woman-kneeling-in.html
"Actor Jesse Williams Gets Real About Relentless Dehumanization Of Black Men"
"Actor Jesse Williams Gets Real About Relentless Dehumanization Of Black Men"
"Attorney General Eric Holder Recalls Being Hassled By Cops"
Paul Ryan On Ferguson: "Let Law Enforcement Do Their Job"
WalMart Video Shows Man Shot Dead, Without Warning For Leaning On Toy Gun
White Man Jaywalks With Assault Rifle. Guess What Police Do
A Cop's Take On Ferguson
Former Prosecutor Reflects On "Good Cops," Bad Cops" And Ferguson, Missouri
"120,000 Black And Hispanic Teens Stopped And Frisked In NYC Last Year"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/08/120000-black-and-hispanic-teens-stopped.html
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Video Of Missouri Cop Threatening To Kill Protestors
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/08/video-of-missouri-cop-threatening-to.html
Jon Stewart Blasts Fox News: "No "F*cking Idea How To Discuss Ferguson"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/08/jon-stewart-blasts-fox-news-no-f-idea.html
"Ferguson Isn't About Black Rage Against White Cops. It's About White Rage Against Progress"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/08/ferguson-isnt-about-black-rage-against.html
Injustice In Ferguson Long Before Michael Brown
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/08/injustice-in-ferguson-long-before.html
"Suppression Of The Press By Ferguson Police"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/08/suppression-and-attempted-suppression.html
Jon Stewart Blasts Fox News: "No "F*cking Idea How To Discuss Ferguson"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/08/jon-stewart-blasts-fox-news-no-f-idea.html
"Ferguson Isn't About Black Rage Against White Cops. It's About White Rage Against Progress"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/08/ferguson-isnt-about-black-rage-against.html
Injustice In Ferguson Long Before Michael Brown
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/08/injustice-in-ferguson-long-before.html
Ferguson: Chain Email From Right-Wing Friend Who Says There's No Racism
"Suppression Of The Press By Ferguson Police"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/08/suppression-and-attempted-suppression.html
If O'Reilly ever contextualizes black criminality by comparing it to un-jailable white-collar criminals responsible for daily havoc in the lives of most Americans, I will listen to Bill's biased bitching about blacks who, no matter their qualifications, are much more likely to be excluded from "a place at the table" than any other ethnicity. (Note that the net worth of a typical American family declined 40% in the years after Bush Cheney's Financial Meltdown. To be clear, The Great Recession was caused by nefarious white guys who robbed thousands of dollars from you, me and everyone else we know. http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/03/between-2007-and-2010-family-net-worth.html)
If you - or I - were systematically excluded from a "place at the table" like black people are, we would be pissed off.
Seriously pissed off.
But we would not be as pissed off as every American "should be" at the inside job that collapsed their net worth while bloating the wealth of white guys so adept at manipulating The Boom/Bust Scam that these "structural" felons make gobs of money "running the economy up" and more gobs "running it down."
If you're a protected, un-jailable white person, you get rich whether you pimp/pump The System - or crash it.
You get richer still if you run The Boom-Bust Scam as a two-step sequence.
If you - or I - were systematically excluded from a "place at the table" like black people are, we would be pissed off.
Seriously pissed off.
But we would not be as pissed off as every American "should be" at the inside job that collapsed their net worth while bloating the wealth of white guys so adept at manipulating The Boom/Bust Scam that these "structural" felons make gobs of money "running the economy up" and more gobs "running it down."
If you're a protected, un-jailable white person, you get rich whether you pimp/pump The System - or crash it.
You get richer still if you run The Boom-Bust Scam as a two-step sequence.
Check out the Oscar-winning documentary, "Inside Job." (Or simply read any factual account not hide-bound by Christian/Values "opinion.")
"Inside Job"
Oscar-winning documentary about the Wall Street origin of The Great Recession.
Freely streamable online
Whereas the white felons who run America are equal opportunity malfeasants, black criminals almost exclusively commit black-on-black crime.
Imagine the number of O'Reilly fans who would secretly gloat that "those damn niggers are getting what they deserve" if O'Reilly described black crime as a largely ghettoized problem with virtually no impact on middle class whites.
When O'Reilly pushes "The Murder Button" - and analyzes the statistics "by race" - the raw numbers are horrifying.
What O'Reilly does NOT say is that the U.S. murder rate has fallen by more than half since 1991 and that the rate among white murderers is five to ten times higher than it is for whites in most European countries - and 10 to 20 times higher than murder rates in Japan and other southeast Asian countries.
"The US Murder Rate Is On Track To Be Lowest In A Century"
http://www.
"America's Real Criminal Element: Lead"http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/10/americas-real-criminal-element-lead.html
"More Americans Killed By Police Than By Terrorists Even Though Crime Is Down"http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/03/more-americans-killed-by-police-than-by.html
http://www.
"America's Real Criminal Element: Lead"
"America's Real Criminal Element: Lead"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/10/americas-real-criminal-element-lead.html
"More Americans Killed By Police Than By Terrorists Even Though Crime Is Down"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/03/more-americans-killed-by-police-than-by.html"More Americans Killed By Police Than By Terrorists Even Though Crime Is Down"
True to form, O'Reilly sings the praises of American white men, who -- when judged against the rest of the developed world -- comprise an exceptionally sleazy demographic.
Currently, a higher percentage of American whites are behind bars than any other prison population in any other country.
Ever!
The brightest light O'Reilly shines (albeit unwittingly) is on American white people who -- despite the extraordinary favoritism bestowed on them by accident of "white" birth -- are not only more violent than folk in most developed countries, but white American leaders -- from the Civil War, through the Spanish-American War and on into Vietnam and Iraq -- have killed and maimed far more people than the cumulative carnage perpetrated by "colored folk" from the start of the slave trade onward.
"Terrorism and The Other Religions"
by University of Michigan History Professor, Juan Cole
(Yes, it fact checks.)O'Reilly's implicit praise for American white people -- despite their extraordinary penchant for mayhem -- is as bizarre as most reports of his misogynistic sex life.
Nor do American whites limit themselves to penny ante one-on-one crime: instead they specialize in structural crime, war crime, torture and mass murder.
New York Governor Mario Cuomo rightly observed that 'the United States is the most violent culture in the history of the world.'
Speaking of Cuomo...
What if Italians were judged by the actions of malfeasant Mafiosi, whose enduring "reign of terror" upon the Italian people Pope Francis lambasted just last week. http://www.
Have you gotten wind of reports concerning a Mob contract on Francis? http://ncronline.org/
Trust me Giovanni... You don't want O'Reilly firing up the century-old debate whether Italians are white people!
Speaking of Cuomo...
What if Italians were judged by the actions of malfeasant Mafiosi, whose enduring "reign of terror" upon the Italian people Pope Francis lambasted just last week. http://www.
Have you gotten wind of reports concerning a Mob contract on Francis? http://ncronline.org/
Trust me Giovanni... You don't want O'Reilly firing up the century-old debate whether Italians are white people!
"The Largest Mass Lynching In The United States: 11 Italians In 1891"
The total number of annual murders in the "United" States is half the number of Americans killed in auto accidents each year. (And half the number of firearm suicides.)
What's more, the U.S. traffic fatality rate is twice that of Europe.
N.B. Every year, the United States could prevent as many traffic deaths as the total number of American murders by the simple expedient of duplicating European laws, regulations and norms as they relate to vehicular transportation.
What's more, the U.S. traffic fatality rate is twice that of Europe.
N.B. Every year, the United States could prevent as many traffic deaths as the total number of American murders by the simple expedient of duplicating European laws, regulations and norms as they relate to vehicular transportation.
Do you know why you've never heard about 15,000 preventable traffic fatalities but you get lathered over 7000 black-on-black killings?
It's because human beings delight in pointing fingers at any evil -- real or perceived -- that they themselves cannot "fix."
When it comes to black crime, there is nothing whites "can do about it" -- thanks be to God! --and so they exempt themselves from personal responsibility.
Like Pilate, American Caucasians first "wash their hands," then white-wash their conscience.
There is little inclination for "The Master Race" to be bothered by any issue that does not deliver high enough doses of self-righteous wrath to distinguish "the good guys" as "God's own allies," while representing "the other guy" as worthy of perpetual punishment followed by eternal damnation.
"Yeshua Excoriates Fellow Pharisees"
On the other hand, your taxes - and my taxes - paid for My Lai and Abu Ghraib... not to mention the larger military obscenities of which they were part.
Did you refuse to pay that percentage of your taxes which supported The Vietnam War or Bush-Cheney's Whimsy War in Iraq?
We could have.
But we didn't.
The resulting blood -- 3,000,000 dead in Vietnam and a million dead in Iraq (and counting) -- is on our hands.
Make no mistake. Bush and Cheney launched The Whimsy War on sheer trumpery and brazen fabrication but they will "walk" as surely as Bo Brownstein in the photograph above.
Then there are millions of maimed Iraqis hidden from view by our focus on "body counts."
***
***
Also hidden from view are tens of thousands of maimed GIs.
All for nothing.
Less than nothing.
"For misleading the American people, and launching the most foolish war since Emperor Augustus in 9 B.C sent his legions into Germany and lost them, Bush deserves to be impeached and, once he has been removed from office, put on trial along with the rest of the president’s men. If convicted, they’ll have plenty of time to mull over their sins."
Israeli War Historian, Martin van Creveld, the only non-American on the U.S. Military Officer Corps' required reading list.
***
Still want to talk about 7000 black-on-black murders?
Anyone who thinks that reducing the number of murders committed by blacks from 7000 to 700 will improve the lives of white people needs IV thorazine.
Race is always a distraction from the real political work of "following the money."
Follow this...
If Iraq's principal export were broccoli, there would not have been a war in the first place.
Follow this...
If Iraq's principal export were broccoli, there would not have been a war in the first place.
The United States is the only country to drop "The Big One."
And not just once, but twice.
And both times upon civilian populations.
"Christian Just War Principles" Established c. 500 A.D.
Vs. America's "just war tradition"
Vs. America's "just war tradition"
Money -- not minority crime -- is the proper focus of social and political reform.
Every consideration other than money contributes to the carefully-crafted smokescreen that obscures the machinations of The 1% (actually, The 5%) whose single-minded determination to maintain (and preferably exacerbate) income inequality makes it impossible for many blacks -- and whites -- to escape the crushing weight of economic oppression.
Bottom line?
The moneyed class finances plenty of propaganda (including O'Reilly's) to divert American outrage from The Fat Cats, putting it instead on "reprehensible" minorities whom The Ungodly Rich deprive of dignity-and-resource just as they have always deprived "the undeserving poor."
"Divide and conquer." It's the oldest trick in the book.
The moneyed class finances plenty of propaganda (including O'Reilly's) to divert American outrage from The Fat Cats, putting it instead on "reprehensible" minorities whom The Ungodly Rich deprive of dignity-and-resource just as they have always deprived "the undeserving poor."
"Divide and conquer." It's the oldest trick in the book.
The process whereby The Filthy Rich draw our attention downward rather than upward (thus idolizing humankind's "lesser angels") is a kind of "cooptation," a frequently-used term in the 60s and 70s which dropped from radar when self-victimizing white Americans became the d___f___s they are now.
Never has it been so flamingly clear that "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing."
Blessedly, Pope Francis is not distracted by sidelight.
Furthermore, as a well-trained Jesuit, he knows more than enough to be dangerous to the plutocratic status quo.
Pope Francis Links
Marcuse and Cooptation
Modern politics is ostensibly permissive but fundamentally repressive.
"Plutocracy Triumphant"
A Compendium of Cartoons
It is essential to keep in mind that "nothing is perfect" and that The Body Politic is seriously injured when citizens (most often conservative citizens) insist that "Impossibly Pure Principles" are Mandatory Norms that all "good people" must champion while anyone who does not preach "perfection" deserves to die, or at least agonize before premature death.
"The terrible thing about our time is precisely the ease with which theories can be put into practice. The more perfect, the more idealistic the theories, the more dreadful is their realization. We are at last beginning to rediscover what perhaps men knew better in very ancient times, in primitive times before utopias were thought of: that liberty is bound up with imperfection, and that limitations, imperfections, errors are not only unavoidable but also salutary. The best is not the ideal. Where what is theoretically best is imposed on everyone as the norm, then there is no longer any room even to be good. The best, imposed as a norm, becomes evil.”
"Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander,” by Trappist monk, Father Thomas Merton
More Merton Quotes
***
"Is Perfectionism A Curse? Paul Ryan Tells The Truth"
"Is Perfectionism A Curse? Paul Ryan Tells The Truth"
Knowing that Lonnie C spent the better part of 20 years "on the bench" -- and from that seat-of-judgment had "seen it all" -- I once asked him what percentage of human beings he considered "n'er-do-wells."
His answer surprised me.
"3%."
"3%."
Bill O'Reilly and other angry whites who make up the increasingly desperate Party of Nope insist that everyone be outraged over the abuses of 3%, as if removing the splinter from the eye of racial minorities will take away the tree trunk protruding from their own.
"Yeshua Excoriates Fellow Pharisees"
But the most devious - and dangerous - premise of O'Reilly's politics (and this is true for Pharisees in every generation) is his determination to justify the oppression of a decisive majority of hard-working, responsible black people by making "angry white people" believe their outrage at a minority justifies prejudicial treatment of the whole group.
"Ferguson Is What America Has Always Been:
Our Dangerous Delusions On Race & Democracy"
http://paxonbothhouses.
"Watch John Oliver’s Take On Ferguson And The Police"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/08/watch-john-olivers-take-on-ferguson-and.html"Watch John Oliver’s Take On Ferguson And The Police"
Angry white guys will get their comeuppance and sooner than they think.
Furthermore, they are hoisting their own petard by letting relatively trivial "particulars" blind them to the contextualized understanding that is always required for proper valuation of "facts in the foreground."
As Aquinas pointed out, "sin" hinges on loss of proportion-and-perspective and it is the abandonment of these two prudential qualities that will prove the undoing of American "conservatism."
Time will tell if "the cons" manage to undo America first.
Furthermore, they are hoisting their own petard by letting relatively trivial "particulars" blind them to the contextualized understanding that is always required for proper valuation of "facts in the foreground."
As Aquinas pointed out, "sin" hinges on loss of proportion-and-perspective and it is the abandonment of these two prudential qualities that will prove the undoing of American "conservatism."
Time will tell if "the cons" manage to undo America first.
"Shark Attacks Rise Worldwide: Risk Assessment and Aquinas' Criteria For Sin"
"The Death Of Epistemology"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/09/are-polls-skewed-death-of-epistemology.html
"Republicans For Revolution: A Study In Anarchic Apocalypticism"
"Republicans For Revolution: A Study In Anarchic Apocalypticism"
"The Republican Party Is A Satanic Cult"
Bobby Jindal criticizes The Stupid Party
which "simply protects the rich so they get to keep their toys"
***
Not just good Christians, but "saved!" Bible Belt Christians.
![]()
- "Bank on it: The South Is Always Wrong"
- ***
- "Why The Bible Belt Is Christianity's Worst Enemy"
Bill O'Reilly's sexual harassment lawsuit
Wikipedia
On October 13, 2004, O'Reilly sued Andrea Mackris, a former producer for The O'Reilly Factor, with extortion charges, alleging that she had threatened a lawsuit unless he paid her more than $60 million. Subsequently that day, Mackris sued O'Reilly for sexual harassment, seeking $60 million in damages. Her lawsuit alleged two types of legally-cognizable sexual harassment claims that are not based upon physical contact: quid pro quo and hostile work environment. In her lawsuit, she filed a 22-page complaint with the Supreme Court of the State of New York[92] and produced quotations from alleged explicit phone conversations between herself and O'Reilly in which he "advised her to use a vibrator and told her about sexual fantasies involving her."[93] On October 15, 2004, Fox sought judicial permission to fire Mackris, but she was never dismissed. On October 19, 2004, Mackris filed an amended complaint seeking further damages for illegal retaliatory actions by O'Reilly, Fox News, and the News Corporation-owned newspaper The New York Post.[94] On October 28, 2004, O'Reilly and Mackris reached an out-of-court settlement and dropped all charges against each other. According to several published reports, as part of the settlement O'Reilly likely paid Mackris millions of dollars, but the terms of the agreement are confidential.[95]
On Thu, Aug 14, 2014 at 5:52 PM, JT wrote:
----- Original Message -----From: BTSent: Thursday, August 14, 2014 12:42 AMSubject: Fwd: Provocative subjectMaybe these thoughts should be voiced more globally.BillThis guy is "spot on" this time!Mark
On Tue, Sep 2, 2014 at 1:26 PM, JT wrote:
Thought you might want to read this ...sent to me by an old friend from Pgh, Audrey.. Who knows if a dying black actually wrote it...ciao----- Original Message -----From: AKSent: Monday, September 01, 2014 6:17 PMSubject: FW: Lot of truth here!!This is a bit long but well worth the read. It is so true in this country today. AThis is from a dying black man to the black people of America…he is so right! I hope it is not too long for youThe words of a dying man have always captured my attention, right or
Wrong, they are worth reading. I believe what this dying man has to say
Has a lot of truth. May not be what some will want to hear.
I wanted to clear up a few black and white questions and answers. The
things I state are facts. They are not downloaded from some media website,
not propaganda, just observations from a 70 year old black man, born in
America .
I was told by my parents (yes, a married man and woman with my last name),
that I was nigger. We lived in Nigger Town in a small Texas town,
No A/C, grass growing through the floor, no car, no TV. We washed our
bodies with lye soap that my mother made, by hand. I thought I was a
Nigger, until I graduated high school, went to college, did an enlistment in the
Army, and got a job. I am now retired, own my own home, have 6 children by
ONE
WOMAN, and we all have the same last name. I have a Bachelor’s Degree in
Liberal Arts, a Master’s Degree in Sociology. My retirement, VA
Disability from combat in the Korean War (I only have one leg), and
Part-time pay in a local college, is about $125,000 a year. From dirt poor nigger, to old,
black, proud American.
Yes, I am black, and I can say nigger, because I understand the true
Meaning of the word.
Let’s clear up a few things about the Michael Brown incident.
-Fact: It is not called "shoplifting or stealing", it's called "robbery",
Which is a felony. Brown stole something and assaulted someone, that
means ROBBERY. It’s on video, and it’s a fact. Not shoplifting, not
Theft not shop lifting a few cigars, but ROBBERY!
-Michael Brown, like Trayvon, was portrayed by the media as a little
Black boy, cute little headphones, and his cap and gown photo, gunned
Down by
A ruthless police assassin, executed by whitey. First, I have never
Seen a cop drag a person into their cars driver door to arrest them. So,
let us be clear, Michael Brown was a nigger; a sorry assed, criminal,
hoodlum, nigger. Nobody wants to say that, but I will. He had a criminal
Record a mile long, was known for numerous assaults, robberies, including the one
You saw with your own eyes, and still refuse to call it a robbery.He was, like so many others, living a life that he thought he was entitled
To, just for being alive. Gangsta rap, weed, drinking, guns, and those
stupid-assed low profile rims, makes him some kind of bad-ass nigger.
-I have fought communist Chinese and North Korean soldiers in the 1950 s
With more honor than that nigger. Yep, I peeled potatoes and shot
communists. That’s the only job a nigger soldier could get.
-Rodney King? Black Riots!
-Trayvon? Black Riots!
-Hurricane Katrina? Black Riots! Stealing TVs, designer clothes, etc.
-O.J. Simpson kills white man and white woman, found NOT GUILTY? Did
white folks riot? Nope!
-In fact, when is the last time white people rioted? Civil War, maybe?
That’s because they are, relatively, civilized people, much like many black
Americans. Protesting is one thing, hell, I’m all for it. Even if you
are an ignorant idiot, you have a right to protest.
-Stop only showing the young black "cap and gown" photos of Michael.
Charles Manson may have a few of those laying around, as well. Show the
nigger
"gangsta" photos of the "poor unarmed teenager" (grown man) pics that have
been removed from his Facebook page, holding the loaded pistol, smoking
weed, with a mouthful of money.
-Militarization? The stupid-assed media that publicizes this has no idea
What militarization really is? Cops wear helmets and vests, and drive
armored vehicle because unemployed niggers thrown bricks at them, moron!
You put on an "Adam 12" uniform and walk down the streets of Ferguson
during
the criminal riots. I can guarantee that you'll jump into the first
armored "military tank" that you see.
-You only "want the police" when you "need the police", otherwise, you
mock and fear what you do not understand about the police. And by the way,
The police are trained to take your shit, but I wouldn’t mess around with
Those Army National Guard, they aren’t as well disciplined culturally to
Take your shit like police do every day. They will ventilate your black
asses with M-16s, with military precision and extreme prejudice.
-And finally, the way we protest and demand justice, is run down the
streets breaking shit, looting stores, and acting like a bunch of untrained
monkeys? Hell, after Rodney King, criminal niggers were actually killing
people, thinking they were entitled to be worse criminals than they already
were. For those black criminals that do that, you are a disgrace to your
race,
inflamed by idiots like Al Sharpton, instead of listening to logic from
proud black Americans, like Bill Cosby, Samuel Jackson, Colin Powell, Allen
West, me, etc.
-You blame white people for your ignorance, criminal acts, unemployed
laziness, etc.
-You blame white people for 89% of the prisons in America being full of
blacks. They did nothing wrong, the racists white cops framed them all,
right? No chance at school, no chance for college, military, employment?
BULL
SHIT!
-More niggers kill niggers, than niggers killing whites, whites killing
Niggers, and whites killing whites. COMBINED. I find this astounding.
-It's not white peoples' faults, the Emancipation Proclamation was signed
by a white man years ago. You can go to school, get a job, buy a house,
and vote, JUST LIKE WHITE FOLKS!!!! You are not a slave, you are not
discriminated against! Slavery is abolished, and nobody alive today, was
alive
when it was popular. Get over it! You are discriminated against because
you are a criminal, sorry-assed nigger. Otherwise, black Americans are
treated like everyone else.
-If you choose to create "baby daddy and baby mama", and fake disabilities
As an excuse for laziness to draw social security disability instead of
Husband, wife, family, job, mortgage, it’s YOUR FAULT, not white folks.
And there are a lot of proud black Americans that will tell you the same, as
I AM ONE OF THEM!!!
-Remember, the way you act on the camera, is remembered by everyone who
sees it. They will never forget it. It shows them how you, as the black
Race, responds to situation that don’t particularly go the way you think
They
Should. It will become a reference standard, something they expect from
You when the next media report doesn’t go your way. Stop being stupid
niggers, and be a proud black American. My parents raised me well, but
they were wrong about one thing, I am not a nigger.
I will not be around long. While my mind is still sharp, and my aim is
still good, my body is eating away with cancer. It started in the
prostate, and is spreading rapidly. After I die, I have asked my children to publish
my writings, and include my name. Although I am not expecting any
miracles, I can only hope that American will stop blaming color, start
blaming criminals, and see people for what they really are. We have too many
countries that want us dead. We should not be fighting each other.
=============
↧
↧
Abe Lincoln's Bedrock Economics Which NO Conservative Will Publicize. Not one. Ever
Abraham Lincoln: "In my present position I could scarcely be justified were I to omit raising a warning voice against this approach of returning despotism. It is not needed nor fitting here that a general argument should be made in favor of popular institutions, but there is one point, with its connections, not so hackneyed as most others, to which I ask a brief attention. It is the effort to place capital on an equal footing with, if not above, labor in the structure of government. It is assumed that labor is available only in connection with capital; that nobody labors unless somebody else, owning capital, somehow by the use of it induces him to labor. This assumed, it is next considered whether it is best that capital shall hire laborers, and thus induce them to work by their own consent, or buy them and drive them to it without their consent. Having proceeded so far, it is naturally concluded that all laborers are either hired laborers or what we call slaves. And further, it is assumed that whoever is once a hired laborer is fixed in that condition for life. Now there is no such relation between capital and labor as assumed, nor is there any such thing as a free man being fixed for life in the condition of a hired laborer. Both these assumptions are false, and all inferences from them are groundless. Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration."
Read Lincoln's entire State of the Union Address, December 3, 1861 http://www.infoplease.com/t/hist/state-of-the-union/73.html#ixzz17XlRsbev
Further Contextualization:
Further Contextualization:
***
"Politics and Economics: The 101 Courses You Wish You Had"
↧
Reflection On Christopher Columbus: Happy To Be An American. Pissed At The Process
The above quotation is not fabricated.
It is a historical reflection on Christian Europe's conquest of Latin America
written by revered Dominican Friar Bartolome de las Casas
Dear Fred,Thanks for your email.
I have always admired the extraordinary courage of Columbus and his crew, setting sail to the unknown, trespassing "the point of no return." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus
Next Spring, on my first trip to Spain (Portugal and Morocco), I look forward to visiting Cadiz, the nondescript city from which Cristoforo Colombo began his journey to terra incognita armed only with his belief that land was "out there."
That way lie dragons. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Here_be_dragons
That way lie dragons. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Here_be_dragons
Although I appreciate the great goodness that eventually emerged from European colonization, I stumble on the manifold evils arising from The Conquest.
Here is a pertinent post from last December:
"The Pope Finally Does His Job. Christian Conservatives Aghast"
Have you seen "The Mission" with Jeremy Irons, Robert de Niro and Daniel Berrigan playing a colonial priest? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091530/
Not a great movie but a very good movie that focuses the central argument over the humanity - or animality - of native Americans.
U.S. Civil War general Sheridan said -- and meant -- "The only good Indian is a dead Indian." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Sheridan
George Washington ordered the complete annihilation of the peaceful, remarkably civilized Seneca who lived on the land where I grew up in Rochester and Honeoye, New York. ("Honeoye" is Seneca for "finger lying" and refers to a Seneca foraging story.) http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/02/general-george-washington-orders.html
I hold Mary Jemison in high regard and wonder what she "saw" that made her prefer "the Indians" who scalped her parents and siblings to "the life" and lineage of her birth family's culture.
The overarching story of The Conquest (in that part of The New World now known as The "United" States) is told more powerfully than Greek tragedy in Rick Burns' documentary, "The Way West."
"American Exceptionalism: In Theory And Practice"
Since my return to "the states" in 1989, I find myself welcoming the northern migration of Hispanics whose genes and instincts are rooted in their "Indian" past.
I have no idea how it will end -- or even if The United States (as you and I know it) will survive the deluge.
But it "feels" to me -- and even "rationalizes" to my satisfaction -- that native Americans are appropriately re-appropriating their 20,000 year-old place in the world. (It worked for the Jews after 1900 years.)
The "beauty" of this occupation is that it has no ideological propulsion nor "legal demand."
It is simply happening - just as our Celtic forebears poured across Europe from what is now "Slovakia" to the outermost Irish isles.
The "beauty" of this occupation is that it has no ideological propulsion nor "legal demand."
It is simply happening - just as our Celtic forebears poured across Europe from what is now "Slovakia" to the outermost Irish isles.
I welcome the natives and hope they become our salvation.
In the main, white Americans continue their decline into the slovenly slobbishness of WalMart consumerism - a Caucasian coven of churls, yahoos and boors strangely determined to replace their Tocquevillian integrity with couch potatohood and the lassitude of aggressive ignorance.
It is hard to imagine that this nation originated in a burst of Enlightenment genius - with learning, rationality and the promise-of-progress at the heart of the enterprise.
In the end, my relationship with Columbus is rather like a child sired by rape.
On one hand, I can not help but be grateful for the outcome.
On one hand, I can not help but be grateful for the outcome.
On the other, it is hard to applaud the thievery and carnage.
Pax tecum
Alan
PS A final - out of place - note. My travel business, Yucatan Adventure, has brought me into "close contact" with Franciscan Friar, Diego de Landa - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diego_de_Landa and La Guerra de Castas. http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerra_de_Castas
On Tue, Sep 2, 2014 at 7:36 PM, Fred Owens <froghospital911@gmail.com> wrote:
the seasons begins -- referring to the ritual revisionist bashing of the great admiral, the day of discovery that changed the world -- for the better.Pax ought to get on this one.
--Fred Owens
cell: 360-739-0214
My gardening blog is Fred OwensMy writing blog is Frog Hospital
send mail to:
Fred Owens
35 West Main St Suite B #391
Ventura CA 93001
↧
Totalitarian Absolutism And "The Thinking Housewife"
"You can safely assume you’ve created God in your own image
when it turns out God hates all the same people you do."
Tom Weston S.J.
Tom Weston S.J.
***
"Polygamy Legal Again In Utah"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/08/polygamy-legal-again-in-utah.html
"Big Enough To Be Inconsistent: Abraham Lincoln Confronts Slavery And Race"
"Bad Black People: Why Bill O'Reilly Is Wrong Even When He's Right"
http://paxonbothhouses.
"Minnesota Man Tased For Refusing To Identify Himself"
"Minnesota Man Tased For Refusing To Identify Himself"
http://paxonbothhouses.
"White Man Jaywalks With Assault Rifle. Guess What Police Do"
"White Man Jaywalks With Assault Rifle. Guess What Police Do"
http://paxonbothhouses.
"WalMart Video Shows Man Shot Dead, Without Warning, For Holding Toy Gun"
"WalMart Video Shows Man Shot Dead, Without Warning, For Holding Toy Gun"
http://paxonbothhouses.
"I Understand The First Bullet. And The Second Bullet. And The Third Bullet. And The..."
"I Understand The First Bullet. And The Second Bullet. And The Third Bullet. And The..."
"Evelyn Waugh's BBC Interview"
The "Radical Traditionalist Catholic" Movement
Pope Francis Radical Enactment Of The Good News...
And "Getting My Church Back"
And "Getting My Church Back"
Key TED Talk: "Willful Blindness:
Why We Ignore The Obvious At Our Peril"
Why We Ignore The Obvious At Our Peril"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-psychology-of-willful-blindness-why.html
"The terrible thing about our time is precisely the ease with which theories can be put into practice. The more perfect, the more idealistic the theories, the more dreadful is their realization. We are at last beginning to rediscover what perhaps men knew better in very ancient times, in primitive times before utopias were thought of: that liberty is bound up with imperfection, and that limitations, imperfections, errors are not only unavoidable but also salutary. The best is not the ideal. Where what is theoretically best is imposed on everyone as the norm, then there is no longer any room even to be good. The best, imposed as a norm, becomes evil.”
"Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander,” by Trappist monk, Father Thomas Merton
***
Alan: Yesterday, at the Novus Ordo site, I was struck by the clear "call" for "submission," the same word that translates the Arabic root of "Islam." Although submission can be virtuous, it lends itself to vice-viciousness when informed by psychological Absolutism.
The trade-off of Absolutism is this: we will absolutely surrender to Authority (typically a male authority) with the understanding that Absolute Authority will take providential care of Everything, even ensuring that there is "good reason" for the worst tragedies - forgotten children dying in car seats, plagues, The Iraq War, multiple amputations from vaccine-preventable meningococcal infection, and -- pièce de résistance -- an ironclad guarantee of "my" personal salvation.
On the other hand, Liberalism is so saturatedly satanic that there is no possibility of salvation, only hope of Total Annihilation followed by Eternal Damnation.
Liberalism: "Satanic Rebellion Against God?" (The Thinking Housewife)
The ironic downside of total (totalitarian) submission to Absolute Authority is that Christian traditionalists, political Zionists and jihadists all adopt the same self-certain pose: "Not only is "my" Absolutism better than "your" Absolutism, "my" Absolutism happens to be The One, True, Holy Absolutism which - in demonstration of God's Great Goodness - authorizes me to act as The Smiting Hand of Deity, working tirelessly for your total destruction while anticipating the great good cheer caused by your irredeemable damnation to The Lake of Unquenchable Fire.
"Chesterton On Charity, Hope And Universal Salvation"
"Charity is the power of defending that which we know to be indefensible. Hope is the power of being cheerful in circumstances which we know to be desperate. It is true that there is a state of hope which belongs to bright prospects and the morning; but that is not the virtue of hope. The virtue of hope exists only in earthquake and eclipse. It is true that there is a thing crudely called charity, which means charity to the deserving poor; but charity to the deserving is not charity at all, but justice. It is the undeserving who require it, and the ideal either does not exist at all, or exists wholly for them."
Heretics, ch. 12 (1905)
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
***
"Chesterton's Universalism," by Edward Babinski
***
Preliminary and follow-up discussion with Fred Owens, author of "Frog Hospital."
On Mon, Sep 1, 2014 at 11:26 AM, Fred Owens <froghospital911@gmail.com> wrote:
As far as I can tell, this group seems to be different than Laura's group...... I have not seen her write against the Jews, nor for them either.The 'Radical Traditionalist Catholic' Movement
By Heidi BeirichThough tiny in comparison with the approximately 70 million Americans who are mainstream Catholics, "radical traditionalist Catholics" may form the single largest group of hard-core anti-Semites in America.
--My writing blog is Frog Hospital
send mail to:
Fred Owens
35 West Main St Suite B #391
Ventura CA 93001
Dear Fred,
Thanks for your email.
Thanks for your email.
I am preparing a post entitled Totalitarian Absolutism and "The Thinking Housewife."
When done, I will copy you.
While researching this upcoming post, I came across Heidi Beirich's article, The "Radical Traditionalist Catholic" Movement. http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-radical-traditionalist-catholic.html
I would guess Laura does not focus "the Jews" for one of two reasons.
1.) Consciously or unconsciously, she knows that the anti-Semitic "button" is crimson red and she would get burned by pushing it. That said, conservative Christianity's fondness for political Zionism inclines me to believe Laura feels sympathy for the modern state of Israel but perhaps not strongly enough to vocalize support for "swarthy" non-white Semites. After all... "Let one Semite in the tent and look who's parking his camel at curbside." (Christian conservatives are extraordinarily good at "Willful Ignorance." http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-psychology-of-willful-blindness-why.html)
2.) If Laura expressed sympathy for the Church's foundational teaching that "Jews are Christ Killers," many of her own followers would point out that this (de facto if not de jure) church teaching is manifestly false, an error set straight by "The Second Vatican Council" which Traditionalist Catholics see as the cornerstone of "The Great Apostasy." Since it takes but one hole in the dike to collapse the entire structure of Absolutism, better not poke any hole at all.
A personal vignette...
In the 1960s, a nun named Sister Inez taught my youngest brother, Bill, that "Jews are Christ Killers."
Blessedly, I and Bill's three other siblings -- Janet, Kevin and Gerald -- escaped the Christ Killer calumny, an abomination zealously promoted by Pope Paul IV whose teaching on extra ecclesiam nulla salus -- "Outside the Church there is no salvation" -- is linchpin justification for sedevacantists and reason to condemn all other religions as idolatrous.
Check out Wikipedia's "Pope Paul IV" entry and pay special heed to the section entitled "Papacy." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Paul_IV
Pax tecum
Alan
PS May I append this correspondence to Totalitarian Absolutism And "The Thinking Housewife?"
***
On Mon, Sep 1, 2014 at 1:04 PM, Fred Owens <froghospital911@gmail.com> wrote:
to not repeat the church's anti-
semitism is goodI don't think it's necessary for her or any other Catholic to formally renounce old customs -- just stop doing itthe cult of apology is a modern afflictionthis reminds me of my dad who admitted to racial antagonism but made no effort to recruit his children in his attitude. He only said -- quite strongly -- that's my life.
Dear Fred,
Thanks for your email.
My particular passion for truth urges me to set records straight.
"Time To Expunge Catholicism Of Traditions & Texts That Represent God As A Terrorist"
However, as a practical matter, I reluctantly agree that (very often) it is better to stop acting on bad ideology/dogma/custom than to run a fool's errand trying to elicit formal recantation.
The Church's induced obsolescence of usury is a good model for "letting things wither" although, in this instance, I think the Church went overboard.
Here is a pertinent excerpt from my post, "Shallowness and The Thinking Housewife." http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/12/shallowness-and-thinking-housewife.html
"Not long ago, usury was considered such grievous sin that "banking" (and the moral filth on which it hinged) were left to European Jews. "Back then," righteous Christians shunned usury like a rabid pit bull loose in the house. http://paxonbothhouses.
Pax tecum
Alan
PS At your suggestion, I just penned the following comment concerning Christopher Columbus and Europe's impact on The New World. http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/09/reflection-on-christopher-columbus.html
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